11 Lessons About the Love within Families

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There's a lot of room in a person's heart

In the Magic Room, I met Julie Wieber, a 45-year-old nurse whose first husband, Jeff, had died unexpectedly. Her children were very unhappy that she was remarrying, and there had been arguments about it. Julie’s new fiancé, Dean Schafer, was an autoworker.

“I’ll always love your dad,” Julie finally told her kids. “I love Dean, too, but he won’t go certain places in my heart that remain reserved only for your father. I’ve started a new place, a different place, in my heart for Dean.”

For his part, Dean told me that he knew Julie is still in love with her first husband. “Still is and always will be. But I’ve also figured out that Julie has an amazing capacity to love. She has a heart the size of the Grand Canyon. And so I’ve told her: ‘If I can have a little sliver of that heart of yours, you can keep the rest for Jeff.’”